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CC - (1) Approval of an Amendment to the Professional Services Agreement with Sam Schwartz for the MOVE Culver City Project in an Amount Not-to-Exceed $673,167.66; (2) Authorization to the City Manager to Negotiate and Approve the Final Terms of the Amendment; (3) Authorization to the City Manager to Approve Amendments to the Agreement for Contingency Costs of 18% Not-to-Exceed $122,000.00; and (4) (FOUR-FIFTHS VOTE REQUIREMENT): Approve a Budget Amendment in the Amount of $662,682.82 to Bridge the Gap in Project Funding for the Professional Services.
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Meeting Date: March 22, 2021
Contact Person/Dept: Diana Chang / Transportation Department
Phone Number: (310) 253-6566
Fiscal Impact: Yes [X] No [] General Fund: Yes [] No [X]
Public Hearing: [] Action Item: [] Attachments: []
Commission Action Required: Yes [] No [X] Date:
Public Notification: (E-Mail) Meetings and Agendas - City Council (03/18/2021)
Department Approval: Rolando Cruz (03/15/2020)
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RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommends the City Council (1) approve an amendment to the professional services agreement with Sam Schwartz for the MOVE Culver City project in an amount not-to-exceed $673,167.66; (2) authorize the City Manager to negotiate and approve the final terms of the amendment; (3) authorize the City Manager to approve amendments to the agreement for contingency costs of 18% not-to-exceed $122,000.00; and (4) approve a budget amendment in the amount of $662,682.82 to bridge the gap in Project funding for the professional services (requires a four-fifths vote).
BACKGROUND
On May 18, 2020 during the City’s FY21 Budget Study Session, City Council directed City Transportation Department to capitalize on reduced traffic as a result of the pandemic by reclaiming space on the street by installing dedicated bus lanes to improve mobility throughout the City. Subsequently, Staff conducted the research and planning work and returned to the City Council on July 13, 2020 with a recommended plan to implement quick-build mobility lane pilots on three major transit and access arterials (Culver and Washington Boulevards, Sepulveda Boulevard, and Jefferson Boulevard) that can bring positive and impactful changes to mobility throughout the City.
On July 13, 2020, City Council directed staff to move forward with procuring consultant services to plan, design, and implement quick-build mobility lane (bus/bike lane) pilot projects to test and demonstrate the benefits of such infrastructure in maximizing the use of roadways and improving movement to, through and from Culver City. Through repurposing travel lanes for multi-modal transportation, the City aims to facilitate the efficient movement of people and to raise public awareness and acceptance of dedicated transit lanes, improve transit travel time and reliability, and improve access for cyclists and scooter riders. These pilot projects will also serve as an opportunity for the City to learn how the permanent infrastructure improvements would work.
Consistent with the City Council’s direction, Staff conducted a Request for Proposal process to procure such consultant services and, on September 29, 2020, City Council approved the professional services agreement with Sam Schwartz to plan, design, and implement quick-build mobility lane pilot projects.
The overall project has been branded as the MOVE Culver City Project as this project’s intent is to reimagine mobility in the City. A public website, moveculvercity.com <http://moveculvercity.com/>, was immediately established to provide the public with detailed information on the project. The MOVE Culver City Project is dynamic, and is constantly evolving, with staff striving to implement the guiding principles set forth in the City’s TOD Visioning Plan (adopted in 2017) and the Bicycle and Pedestrian Action Plan (adopted in 2010 and updated in 2020) to design and construct holistic transportation options for pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders. In concert with the recommendations of these plans, the MOVE Culver City Project prioritizes moving people over cars in the design of the street and envisions a reimagining of our streets as public spaces. Through implementing these mobility lanes, bus riders, cyclists, and emergency vehicles will all benefit from increased speeds, ease of travel, and reliability of sustainable connections to key destinations and regional transit network, thus enhancing overall mobility throughout the City.
The MOVE Culver City Project is being performed through a quick-build pilot implementation process which includes a condensed schedule, temporary materials, and a best-in-class community engagement approach. The quick-build implementation process was adopted as it allows for a nimble and agile approach. Designs can be piloted and monitored prior to permanent implementation to test the efficacy of these improvements and the impacts on mobility throughout the corridor and adjacent neighborhoods. This approach will also allow for adjustments to address potential issues once implemented.
MOVE Culver City includes three corridors: Downtown/E Line/Arts District corridor on Culver and Washington Boulevards (Downtown Corridor), Sepulveda Boulevard, and Jefferson Boulevard. The City’s Transportation Department, in coordination with Department of Public Works, Community Development and other City departments, has been implementing Corridor 1: Downtown Corridor since October 2020. The Sepulveda and Jefferson corridors will be implemented in a future phase of the project.
The Downtown Corridor Project (herein after referred to as “the Project”) will build mobility lanes in the 1.3-mile stretch of Culver Boulevard and Washington Boulevard between Culver Boulevard at Duquesne Avenue and Washington Boulevard at La Cienega Avenue. This corridor will connect Downtown Culver City with Arts District and the Metro E Line Culver City Station, supporting major commercial and job centers. The Project will also fold in the following efforts to enhance the mobility infrastructure and services within the Project corridor: 1) Bus stop improvements and the creation of three gateway mobility stops; and 2) Implementation of a Circulator Service.
From October 2020 through January 2021, the Project has gone through a comprehensive public engagement and design development process. Within the first couple of meetings, staff recognized the varying levels of opinions and concerns from the community and decided to expand our outreach efforts to ensure true community collaboration. A community project advisory committee (CPAC) was established as the first source of discussion and then multiple community meetings and business roundtable discussions were held. Our original estimate of 295 hours of community meeting/public outreach effort hours expanded to over 460 hours of community outreach. In the end, staff feels that this extra time was absolutely necessary to achieve success.
On February 1, 2021, the City Council approved the design guidelines, design decision recommendations, and the list of key materials for the Project and authorized Staff to finalize and implement the Project design. The City Council further directed Staff to: 1) Return to the City Council with a resolution granting an exemption from the California Environmental Quality Act; 2) Develop the instructions on how filming companies can operate in the Project area after mobility lanes are operational and come up with a plan/process for filming companies; and 3) Explore the scope, timeline and the funding for a parallel Downtown Mobility Study in collaboration with the Downtown Business Association (DBA).
DISCUSSION
Amendment to the Professional Services Agreement with Sam Schwartz
Sam Schwartz (“the Consultant”) has been hired by the City to plan, design, and implement quick-build mobility lane pilot projects. Their services include works associated with the typical implementation of similar quick-build projects. However, the Project has incurred and is anticipated to incur additional efforts that would require an amendment to its scope of services. The first Request for Change Order (RFCO) is an expanded scope of work to tie in the Expo Reimagined work into the Move Culver City project. The second RFCO is to cover the additional costs for expanded scope of community outreach for design, implementation, and evaluation as well as expanded scope for additional engineering services. Finally, the last RFCO is to address the post-pandemic design and long-term vision of Downtown Culver City.
In order to provide an effective and integrated approach on the design and implementation of the Project, Staff is seeking City Council authorization to amend the Consultant’s professional services agreement to include the following additions:
1. Gateway Mobility Stops Design and Development (Expo Reimagined) - RFCO#1
With the intent of creating feasible, attractive, and sustainable mobility options for the public to connect to destinations between Downtown, the Metro E Line Culver City Station, and Arts District, staff is fast tracking the bus stop improvements in the Downtown corridor and creating gateway mobility stops at the termini of the corridor (City Hall and Arts District) and at the E Line Culver City Station. These gateway mobility stops will have enhanced infrastructure and features that will provide better experience and connectivity for transit (including the proposed new Circulator service) and micro-transit users, cyclists, and scooter riders. As the design of the gateway mobility stops will require integration with the mobility lane design, staff is recommending adding this work to the Consultant scope of services.
The Consultant will develop the conceptual design for the three gateway mobility stops, incorporating elements such as furniture, wayfinding signage, the new mobility branding for micro-transit, the new micro-mobility drop zones for scooter share and bike share connectivity, public art, improved lighting, and potential connectivity to other mobility services. The designs will focus on prioritizing improved accessibility and sense of community and will integrate with the design of mobility lanes and the art-inspired street treatments.
Further, for the E Line Culver City Station entrance, the Consultant will coordinate with Metro to identify potential for new updates for signage, wayfinding, and public art with the goal of providing an exemplary customer experience for transit riders boarding, alighting, and transferring at the E Line Culver City Station. The Consultant will also build on the existing City bus stop guidelines to incorporate mobility stop typologies and guidelines that can be deployed in different contexts throughout the city.
2. Additional Efforts for Project Implementation - RFCO#2
In effort to deliver a successful project, Staff conducted an extended and comprehensive design and public engagement process with the internal and external stakeholders to promote the Project, to ensure that the City heard from all interested stakeholders, and to consider all feedback received, and to make sure that the design will meet project goals and address all applicable functional, safety, operational, and aesthetic considerations. Staff originally authorized these extra hours under the contingency provided by Council. As staff anticipates expanded hours to continue our extensive collaboration in the implementation and monitoring phase of the project, staff is seeking a formal authorization to amend the contract for all hours of community collaboration.
Due to the complexity of the lane configurations in the corridor, the Project required a lengthened design development process as well as additional design works associated with bus and vehicle turning movements, bike/bus platform, and traffic/bicycle/pedestrian signal works. The purpose of these additional design works and the lengthened design development process is to ensure that the Project design minimizes potential conflicts between modes so that cars, buses, bikes, electric scooters, and emergency vehicles can operate smoothly and safely within the Project corridor. Again, staff authorized the previous work using the contingency.
Considering the Consultant has incurred a significant amount of additional hours on public outreach, design development, and project management over and above what had been originally anticipated, staff would like to formally seek council approval for these additional hours and the hours planned to implement the project. Staff does anticipate additional Consultant hours will be required for the remainder of the Project process for the support needed to deliver a successful project to the community. These additional efforts include additional internal/external project meetings, coordination and public outreach efforts as well as various other works associated with procurements and implementation. Staff calculated the past and projected hours needed for this project and costed them at the current billing rate and is seeking an increase of $324,031.01 to cover the past and future costs in the Consultant’s professional services agreement.
3. Downtown Mobility Study - RFCO#3
At the Feb. 1 City Council meeting, the Downtown Business Association (DBA) expressed their concerns about the traffic impacts and potential negative impacts that the mobility lane would bring to the downtown businesses. DBA requested and offered to fund a parallel study that will explore both the short-term design updates on the mobility lanes to accommodate the post pandemic change in the temporary outdoor dining as well as the long-term mobility improvements for Downtown Culver City. The DBA also stated they would like the City to use Sam Schwartz to maintain consistency in this review. The City Council directed Staff to explore and discuss this study with DBA and return to the City Council with a recommendation. Subsequently, Staff have met with DBA several times and reached an agreement with DBA on the scope, costs, and the timeline for this study. The DBA agreed to follow the same process of community engagement that we have been following and to bring the final recommendations to the City Council. The estimated cost for the study is $250,070 ($220,070 for the Consultant services and $30,000 for the anticipated Staff hours in Transportation and Public Works Department on this study). DBA has agreed to fully fund the study, which will be implemented through a reimbursement agreement with the City.
The study will include near/mid-term quick build options that can be implemented in Summer 2021 and/or post pandemic and the long-term conceptual design for permanent solutions in Downtown Culver City as detailed in the paragraphs below. As this study is directly related to the design of the mobility lanes and will impact the future recommendations on the permanent mobility lanes, Staff recommends that the scope of this study be added to the Consultant scope of services to achieve an integrated and expedited design process that will help inform the Project design and future recommendations. The City, with assistance from the Consultant, will conduct the study using a similar public engagement process. The study will utilize the same communication strategies and channels as the Project to engage the community and solicit input to inform the design and ensure that the design will reflect what the community desire. The study will take approximately five months to complete. Due to the request from DBA to start the design process as soon as possible, Staff have issued a notice to proceed to the Consultant in advance of the City Council meeting in order to jump start and set up the study. The scope of the study will include the following elements:
• Near/Mid-Term Quick Build Options for Downtown Culver City: Culver Boulevard and Main Street
The Consultant will develop conceptual designs and permit plans for the Tactical Mobility Lanes for the Downtown area built on the current V4 design plans, specifically on westbound Culver Blvd., between Duquesne and Ince, and Main St., between Culver Blvd. and Venice Blvd. The study will identify any minor design adjustments to the current V4 plans in the Downtown Area between Duquesne and Ince for near-term adjustments. The designs for this task will assume no change in the current curb or median dimensions, and minimal to no change to the eastbound lanes implemented as part of the Project effort. The mid-term concept work on Westbound Culver Blvd and Main Street will be done post-pandemic, whereas the implementation date will be determined by Council. In addition to the street design, the Consultant will provide recommendations for loading zone options, minor signal modifications, and other elements to ensure safe operations for the improvements in the design process.
• Long-Term Vision and Feasibility Analysis for Downtown Culver City
Upon completion of the Mid-Term task, the study will establish long-term design consensus and support for a long-term vision for street design and operations for Downtown Culver City. The study will focus on a feasibility and fatal flaw analysis for permanent improvements for the roadway segments on Culver Blvd. from Duquesne Ave. to Ince and Main St. from Venice Blvd. to Culver Blvd. The study will also look beyond the core streets of downtown to understand how the interconnected network of surrounding streets impact the downtown core. The study will extend the focus to Venice Blvd. to the north and east, Madison Ave. to the west, and Braddock Dr. to the south.
The design process will assume a complete transformation of the Right-of-Way in the downtown core streets (Culver Blvd. and Main St.) by looking at what can be accomplished from property line to property line, including changing curb and median locations, changing traffic circulation, changing sidewalk width, adding street trees, signal changes, and other permanent changes to the street. The results of the study will be presented in a vision report and concepts that summarizes the planning, design, operations and implementation phases of the project, which can be used by the City to direct implementation of future efforts.
4. Contingency (18% of Original Contract)
Staff recommends maintaining a contingency of $122,000 (approximately 18% of the original contract cost). This contingency will provide the flexibility for staff to implement potential measures to achieve Project goals, including exploring the use of smart sensor technology to collect real-time traffic volume and mode share data at key intersections for a robust Project monitoring as well as additional public outreach and project management efforts during the pilot period to manage public expectation and address any unanticipated issues.
Staff is requesting the City Council approve an amendment to Consultant’s professional services agreement for the additional scope of services as described above. These services will be funded through various funding sources as described in the fiscal analysis section of this report. Upon City Council approval, Staff will proceed with final negotiations and execution of the amendment.
FISCAL ANALYSIS
The total cost for the additional scope of services is estimated at an amount not-to-exceed $673,167.66. The cost information by project effort is outlined in the table below:
There is sufficient funding in account 20370100.619800 to cover the additional scope of services in the proposed amendment to the Consultant’s professional services agreement plus the 18% contingency ($122,000.00) of the original contract cost. In addition to the funding provided by the DBA to fully fund the Downtown Mobility Study, the Transportation and Public Works Departments have identified additional funding that will cover the remainder of the amendment and the 18% contingency. The funding includes local transit funds, the funding allocated for the Expo-Downtown Bicycle Connector Project, Metro Active Transportation Program grant, and the development contribution funding. The total amount for the additional scope of services plus the 18% contingency is $795,167.66. Currently, the contract has an authorized contingency of $132,484.84. Staff is recommending a budget amendment in the amount of $662,682.82 to bridge the gap in authorized funding under this Project budget for the professional services.
MOTIONS
That the City Council:
1. Approve an amendment to the professional services agreement with Sam Schwartz for the MOVE Culver City project in an amount not-to-exceed $673,167.66;
2. Authorize the City Manager to negotiate and approve the final terms of the amendment;
3. Authorize the City Manager to approve amendments to the agreement for contingency costs of 18% not-to-exceed $122,000.00;
4. Approve a budget amendment in the amount of $662,682.82 to bridge the gap in Project funding for the professional services (requires a four-fifths vote);
5. Authorize the City Attorney to review/prepare the necessary documents; and
6. Authorize the City Manager to execute such documents on behalf of the City.